Department of Religion

Faculty Profile

Victor Thasiah, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Religion

Profile

Victor Thasiah's courses in the humanities relate moral, political, and religious thought and practice. He specializes in the history of religion and political theory, Christian theology and ethics, and community organizing theory and practice. Dr. Thasiah has spent the last two summers conducting ethnographic research across Rwanda, and is currently working on writing projects that relate community organizing on the one hand to religion, development, democracy, human rights, postgenocide recovery, and church-state issues on the other. In connection to his teaching and research, Dr. Thasiah serves on the PICO (People Improving Communities through Organizing) International Advisory Board and California Lutheran University's Center for Equality and Justice Steering Committee. Before coming to CLU in 2011, he was the Director of Social Policy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Editor of Journal of Lutheran Ethics.

"The Right to Freedom of Association: Organizing in Rwanda after Genocide," for a book on Lutheran perspectives on contemporary legal issues (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, forthcoming).